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The Dwarves is a Pandemic-style cooperative game for 2-5 players, designed by Michael Palm and Lucas Zach and published by Pegasus Spiele in Germany as ‘Die Zwerge.’ An English translation of the base game and it’s first major expansion, The Saga, crowdfunded in 2015. All images in this review are from the 2015 Kickstarter edition.In The Dwarves, you play a mighty Dwarven champion who seeks to save their homeland from a horde of invaders, including Orcs, Trolls, and Elves! Yes, the Elves (called Alfar) are bad guys in this game.The lore underpinning the game comes from a series of eponymous fantasy novels by author Markus Heitz. I’d never heard of the series, but I understand that they are very popular in Germany. The designers have put in a LOT of effort towards injecting lore from the novels into all corners of this game. Let’s see if the game has mechanisms and fun factor to match. How to play The DwarvesEvery player gets one character (solo players have to play two or more), which comes with a player mat to track hit points and stats. You also get a nice little mini for the game board.
Lost Vikings, with the combat of Baldur's Gate?Environments recalling Evolva? Vangers: One for the Road?Heck, Neverhood at times? However clumsy the elevator pitch is for Whale Rock Games' We Are The Dwarves, the game itself is anything but.Out of nowhere, a hugely competent and hyper-focused tactical affair drops onto the PC market and continues what is already a vintage year for atmospheric. The Dwarves is a Pandemic-style cooperative game for 2-5 players, designed by Michael Palm and Lucas Zach and published by Pegasus Spiele in Germany as ‘Die Zwerge.’ An English translation of the base game and it’s first major expansion, The Saga, crowdfunded in 2015. All images in this review are from the 2015 Kickstarter edition.
Your stats represent the primary means through which you will interact with the game. Attacking (red) and movement (green) are fairly straightforward.
Your blue stat is your Craft stat, which you use to create equipment, fulfill many of the game’s various tasks, and also influence the council of Dwarves back in your home base. More on that in a bit.As a cooperative game, players will need to work together to accomplish a series of story-based goals. Every turn presents a player with a choice of whether they want to use their two actions to move the story along, or to clean out some bad guys, or both!Whether you want to fight, move, or craft, the action works the same – your stat tells you how many dice to roll, and you roll them! For movement, you get to move as many spaces as the highest die you rolled. When you attack, you apply hits based on what you are attacking. You can slaughter Orcs by the handful with any roll above 4, while the tricksy Elves require a 6. Fortunately, as you progress in the game, you will earn equipment and other boons that allow you to add to, change, or reroll your dice.When you aren’t fighting, you are completing quests.
The quests come from two decks – a main quest deck, as well as a deck of optional side quests that provide helpful rewards. The quests usually require you to travel to different parts of the board and perform some kind of test. As you move through the main quest deck, you’ll eventually hit some grander quests, including a finale that sets the game’s ultimate victory condition.While you do all of that, the enemies flood into the kingdom and despoil everything they touch. At the beginning of every round, a counter moves along the top of the board which, more often than not, triggers an enemy surge. You enact the surge by you guessed it rolling dice! If five or more enemies ever occupy one hex, they ravage that hex and keep moving. Each “perished land” hex does two things: spur enemy troop movement towards the heart of the kingdom and hinder Dwarf movement.
If a Dwarf wants to move through a hex, they have to either take some damage or move a Doom counter, also at the top of the board. Moving Doom basically hastens the endgame.Here’s what the game looks like if you let the enemies get out of hand.One final important game element is the council track. Throughout the game, two politician dwarves vie within the council to see whether they will help or hinder you in your quest. You can use actions on your turn to influence the council in your favor with successful craft rolls.If the Doom counter and the Hero counter ever intersect on the track above the board, you lose.
A dwarf dying from wounds also triggers a loss. But if you can survive the hordes and complete the final quest, you win! What I liked about The DwarvesI have to admit that, at first, I didn’t think I was going to love this game.
Every significant action in this game depends on a die roll. The idea of a fantasy adventure with lots of dice rolling gave me flashbacks to my games of.shiver. Talisman.
Happily, though, I found that the designers found ways to integrate the dice to encourage tension without adding too much frustration. Each dwarf can easily specialize in an area, for example. You can turn one dwarf into a mobile killing machine, while others complete the Craft rolls and other quest objectives you might need.In terms of the game’s level of complexity, I’d say it reminded me of Forbidden Desert. The Dwarves is a bit busier than Forbidden Desert because you have to deal with multiple deck of cards, the council track, etc. However, I felt everything came together in easy, understandable ways. The game provides nice strategic choices and a good challenge without crushing you with its difficulty (you can play on harder modes, but I generally dislike when games define “harder” as “more lucky”, which this game does).As I mentioned above, the designers baked a lot of themeinto the game. I’d say the story elements themselves were fairly generic fantasy, which was disappointing.
However, I really enjoyed the fact that almost every card had some kind of flavor text which represented a quote from the original books. I may not have an attachment to these characters or this story, but someone clearly does. That had an impact on my game experience.My favorite mechanism in the game comes from the perished land tiles. I loved how they presented obstacles for the dwarves walking through them, while at the same time guiding enemy troop movement around the game board.
These tiles take the very well worn “disease outbreak” mechanism from Pandemic and add some wrinkles that encourage lots of strategic choices. You can also plant your dwarf at the end of a perished land chains and recreate some Gandalf-like “you shall not pass!” thematic moments. What I did not like about the DwarvesThis game is not for everyone.
In fact, I’d say if you don’t like Pandemic-style co-ops, you don”t like dice resolution games, and/ or you don’t like fantasy adventures, you might want to turn tail and run.The game does a lot to distinguish itself from Pandemic. However, the engine that runs Pandemic still runs here; you use actions to move around the board, fighting bad guys (treating disease cubes) and fulfilling quests (curing diseases).
I feel like the game does enough to distinguish itself, but that may be because I like fantasy adventure so much that I’m a bit for forgiving.The base game suffers from a lack of replayability. You remove very few cards from each deck in a standard game of the Dwarves, which means almost every game repeats 85-90% percent of the content. It all comes out in a different order each time, but doing the same things in different times gets old very quickly. I’d say the game requires at least the Combined Might expansion for extra cards, and probably the Saga expansion as well to mix up the scenarios and quest decks. The Dwarves is not widely available as it is, so you might be facing a significant investment if you want to track down all of that content in the aftermarket.Finally, while I ultimately forgive the game for the generic fantasy because at least its lovingly crafted generic fantasy, I was a bit frustrated when the game directed you to generic cities on the board without doing more to tell you where they were. You often got quest cards telling you to go to different cities on the board, like “Roodacre” or “Dragon’s Falls”.
I had a hard time locating those cities on the map when quests mentioned them. Further, the perished land titles covered the names. If I got a new quest, I had to turn over every tile to find where I was going. The game lets you sink or swim in terms of finding places, which I found took up more time than I wanted. Final VerdictFor a variety of reasons, I do not recommend this game for hardcore strategy gamers, or people who are a little tired of fantasy adventures. However, if you like co-ops, you don’t mind some luck mixed in with your strategy, and you like hacking off some Orc heads every once in a while, this game is a gem.
It’s too bad The Dwarves hasn’t received wider distribution. Hopefully, that will come with time and some more positive reviews!
For countless millennia, no man or beast has ever succeeded in breaching the stone gateway into Girdlegard. Abandoned as a child, Tungdil the blacksmith is the only dwarf in a kingdom of men. But when he is sent out into the world to deliver a message and reacquaint himself with his people, the young foundling finds himself thrust into a battle for which he For countless millennia, no man or beast has ever succeeded in breaching the stone gateway into Girdlegard. Abandoned as a child, Tungdil the blacksmith is the only dwarf in a kingdom of men. But when he is sent out into the world to deliver a message and reacquaint himself with his people, the young foundling finds himself thrust into a battle for which he has not been trained. Not only his own safety, but the life of every man, woman and child in Girdlegard depends upon his ability to embrace his heritage. Although he has many unanswered questions, Tungdil is certain of one thing: no matter where he was raised, he is a true dwarf.
And no one has ever questioned the courage of the Dwarves. I could not take it any more. I am taking some advice and I am not going to finish this book even though I REALLY tried.
I started this book in August and have taken breaks from it 4 or 5 times. I wanted this book to be good, but its way too simple.
The plot is very simple and predictable. The characters are Tolken templates and are not very interesting. At times it seemed the dialogue between the dwarven characters in this book came straight from 6yr old boys who were having a make a believe I could not take it any more. I am taking some advice and I am not going to finish this book even though I REALLY tried. I started this book in August and have taken breaks from it 4 or 5 times. I wanted this book to be good, but its way too simple. The plot is very simple and predictable.
The characters are Tolken templates and are not very interesting. At times it seemed the dialogue between the dwarven characters in this book came straight from 6yr old boys who were having a make a believe battle in their fort with pretend orcs. This book maybe an 'International Bestseller' but it feels like it was written by a high-schooler. This book reminded me of a role playing game.
Character gets assigned quest and sets off - when character arrives at destination he finds out that the quest completion parameters have been amended and that he has to continue to new destination, where more or less the same thing happens. Along the way the character collects items and learns skills, he also meets other characters with different skills and some of these join up with him, creating a 'party'. In the end, the items and characters This book reminded me of a role playing game.
Character gets assigned quest and sets off - when character arrives at destination he finds out that the quest completion parameters have been amended and that he has to continue to new destination, where more or less the same thing happens. Along the way the character collects items and learns skills, he also meets other characters with different skills and some of these join up with him, creating a 'party'. In the end, the items and characters come together neatly to tie up the main story arc.
Developer credits roll.Now, this isn't a criticism. I happen to enjoy role playing games. I also happen to, at times, indulge in some Warhammer, Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance fiction, which is just as well, otherwise I probably wouldn't have finished The Dwarves. It's pretty much the same thing, really. This is one of those Fantasy books with highly improbably scenarios and bizarrely fortunate (read untouchable) protagonists, for the most part. I also can't help but feel that some of the nuances have been lost in the translation (the original is in German).
Some of the sentences just read a bit nonsensical and seemed slightly out of context.Okay, now that I've got all that off my chest. This isn't a bad novel, and I will certainly be checking out the rest of the series.
BUT, despite the author's best intentions, it doesn't break a whole of a lot of new ground. There are some nice twists, but it isn't enough to make the story great. It's entertaining enough, and I was reminded quite a lot of a Dragonlance novel I once read called. DNF at 50%I know, I know Fifty percent and you dont want to finish?Yeah but this is 700 plus pages! 300 pages, maybe even 400 and Id stick it out but just too much pulp for not enough up side.So Heitz has created a fantasy world where a dwarf is orphaned and raised by a human wizard and then there is a whole society of dwarves and he might be the king and they kill lots of orcs, oh, and there is a bad realm of zombies and villains.Ive read other reviewers say this was like an RPG and it was DNF at 50%I know, I know – “Fifty percent and you don’t want to finish?”Yeah but this is 700 plus pages!
Once I managed to trudge through the first 100 or so pages, (which are a bit of a massive yawn)things really started to pick up and I began to really enjoy the book.The writing isn't particularly stellar, but it flows nicely and it's the characters that spurred me on to continue reading.The core characters I really fell in love with. It would be interesting to read it in it's original german. I am one of those people who can't help but think anything that is translated might lose a bit of Once I managed to trudge through the first 100 or so pages, (which are a bit of a massive yawn)things really started to pick up and I began to really enjoy the book.The writing isn't particularly stellar, but it flows nicely and it's the characters that spurred me on to continue reading.The core characters I really fell in love with. It would be interesting to read it in it's original german. I am one of those people who can't help but think anything that is translated might lose a bit of it's essence.At times, I find it difficult to keep characters names in order, (but I find that with most epic fantasy series) however, the world of the dwarves is constructed quite well.
There's a lot of humour and warmth to these groundlings. I find myself giggling manically especially when Boindil is fighting orcs. (He's on sociopathic little comedic dwarf that one) It's the characters that really hold this tale together. I've read a fair bit of fantasy in my years and some I have liked better than others. This series jumps to the top of my list. I love the DragonLance novels, but I think that this actually topped them, just a bit.I love the fact that the main character is a Dwarf raised around Humans; it gave him a great sense of humor and an academic view of his people.
His 'innocence' in the realm of Dwarven women cracked me up and I think that he was a good mix between the dwarven raised characters.It's a I've read a fair bit of fantasy in my years and some I have liked better than others. This series jumps to the top of my list. I love the DragonLance novels, but I think that this actually topped them, just a bit.I love the fact that the main character is a Dwarf raised around Humans; it gave him a great sense of humor and an academic view of his people. His 'innocence' in the realm of Dwarven women cracked me up and I think that he was a good mix between the dwarven raised characters.It's a typical campaign fantasy novel, but the characters are what make it unique. I think that they were richer even than some of Tolkein's characters, not to belittle LOTR.I found myself sitting at the campfire with the characters and actually holding my breath while one of them tried to catch up to a joke or insult, then guffawing with them as realization dawned LOL. I haven't read the second and third book, yet, but if they are as rich in detail and characters as this one, then I look forward to them immensely.If you are looking for a good Epic campaign, I highly recommend the Dwarves.
Once I read an article about classic fantasy cliches. Classic fantasy books have adjectives ending in ling, like halfling. This is a book fool of lings, it fits all fantasy cliches. But after reading so many realistic and political intriguing fantasy books, this book has its charms in simplicity.First chapters i was wondering whether i stop it or not.
A simple story with AD&D dwarves complete with character creation chapters and skill advancement pages. I thought i was 15 all over.As the Once I read an article about classic fantasy cliches. Classic fantasy books have adjectives ending in ling, like halfling. This is a book fool of lings, it fits all fantasy cliches. But after reading so many realistic and political intriguing fantasy books, this book has its charms in simplicity.First chapters i was wondering whether i stop it or not. A simple story with AD&D dwarves complete with character creation chapters and skill advancement pages. I thought i was 15 all over.As the plot thickens so does the speed.
Slowly the characters become more real and intriguing. A lot of battles take place. The dwarves depicted gain depth but then again they are dwarves, they have their funny moments. As the author explains in acknowledgments section he never ventures far from the normal dwarfloving-readers expectations.The climax is somewhat expected but enjoyable.I dont know if i'll read the second part The War of the Dwarves but it was a trouble free book that I read at ease. It is rare that I do not finish reading a book. This was one of the exceptions. The world was flat, the characters uninspired, and everything was so incredibly predictable.
It was like reading watered-down Tolkein with the addition of dark elves and revenants.What finally annoyed me enough to put the book down halfway through was the simple fact that some measure of time (presumably days) was constantly referred to as 'orbits'. At one point the main character is delirious with fever, and another It is rare that I do not finish reading a book. This was one of the exceptions. The world was flat, the characters uninspired, and everything was so incredibly predictable. It was like reading watered-down Tolkein with the addition of dark elves and revenants.What finally annoyed me enough to put the book down halfway through was the simple fact that some measure of time (presumably days) was constantly referred to as 'orbits'. At one point the main character is delirious with fever, and another character explains that he had been so for 'five orbits'. Seeing as the main character was just running off from orcs intending to kill all the human settlements, knowing whether 'five orbits' is five hours or five years is rather important to the reader.
But no, no explanation. If something can already be readily described using an English word, there's no need to create a new one. Have you ever felt that the fantasy genre has never had any central focus on dwarves? Well if you like dwarves, look no further. Markus Heitz has finally brought them to the forefront in the start, of what I hope will be, a wonderful series.Tungdil is a dwarf, brought up in the company of humans. He has never set eyes on another of his kind before, but this is all about to change.
Soon Tungdil must embark on a quest that will reacquaint him with his fellow dwarves, as they struggle to save the Have you ever felt that the fantasy genre has never had any central focus on dwarves? Well if you like dwarves, look no further. Markus Heitz has finally brought them to the forefront in the start, of what I hope will be, a wonderful series.Tungdil is a dwarf, brought up in the company of humans. He has never set eyes on another of his kind before, but this is all about to change. Soon Tungdil must embark on a quest that will reacquaint him with his fellow dwarves, as they struggle to save the realm of Girdlegard from the forces of evil.I had high hopes for this one, and early on I felt these maybe become dashed because the novel was really slow and not much actually happened, which is part of the reason I took so long to finish it. I persevered, however, and was very much rewarded because things really took off in the latter half and I didn’t want to put the book down. Heitz managed to employ a surprising number twists which I did not expect, especially right at the end where I thought it was going to be just a bit too sugary.The characters were a good cast, and I warmed to quite a few of them.
My particular favourites were Narmora, who I pictured as a dark female version of Legolas from The Lord of Rings, and Rodario whose acting was surprisingly useful to the company throughout the quest.I wish I was able to read German better because I feel I would gain more from reading the book in its original language, Sally-Ann Spencer made the translation a good read though.Another well deserved 4 stars, this is a series I will definitely be reading more of since I really want to see more dwarf based fantasy, and Heitz’s work seems just the stuff I’m looking for. This book seemed to go on forever. It took me over 2 months to read it because I kept setting it aside. Other than that, I enjoyed a fantasy read from the dwarves point of view.
The quest was long and arduous. The battles were fierce. And Tungdil was an endearing character. There were a couple of inconsistencies that gave me pause. The main inconsistency was that The Perished Land turned people who died into 'undead'.
They became evil. Except, some didn't turn evil. They This book seemed to go on forever. It took me over 2 months to read it because I kept setting it aside. Other than that, I enjoyed a fantasy read from the dwarves point of view. The quest was long and arduous. The battles were fierce.
And Tungdil was an endearing character. There were a couple of inconsistencies that gave me pause. The main inconsistency was that The Perished Land turned people who died into 'undead'. They became evil. Except, some didn't turn evil.
They apparently kept their sense of who they were and who they were allied with. I may read more in the series. My grandson is eager to lend me the remainder. If I do read more, I will need to space them out. This was such an easy read. Its your standard fantasy fair, very Tolkienesk, but the focus is on dwarves. The main character is your typical fantasy young man, kinda like your farmboy, however in this case hes a dwarve.
The action is old school fantasy light, reminds me of a middld of the range D&D novel. The plotting is fun but predictable and the world buidling is a bit simple but has a german European twist to it. Probably reccomend for people eho arent big fans of fantasy as its very This was such an easy read.
Its your standard fantasy fair, very Tolkienesk, but the focus is on dwarves. The main character is your typical fantasy young man, kinda like your farmboy, however in this case hes a dwarve.
The action is old school fantasy light, reminds me of a middld of the range D&D novel. The plotting is fun but predictable and the world buidling is a bit simple but has a german European twist to it. Probably reccomend for people eho arent big fans of fantasy as its very simple in structure. However big readers of fantasy could skip it as it doesnt bring much thats current in the genre. The first installment in the series amazed me with how much it managed to achieve exactly what the author said he was aiming for. That is to bring more detail and flesh to the world of the classic, Tolkienian dwarves, the ones we encounter in so many fantasy stories and tend to take for granted as a homogenous mass. In a way, dwarves were the last great mystery, the final frontier of fantasy, and Markus Heitz really managed to breach it in a fantastic way.As a bonus, the book also abounds in The first installment in the series amazed me with how much it managed to achieve exactly what the author said he was aiming for.
That is to bring more detail and flesh to the world of the classic, Tolkienian dwarves, the ones we encounter in so many fantasy stories and tend to take for granted as a homogenous mass. In a way, dwarves were the last great mystery, the final frontier of fantasy, and Markus Heitz really managed to breach it in a fantastic way.As a bonus, the book also abounds in fairytalish, nightmarish images of a powerful beauty and poetry, a credible and realistic history and politics system, plenty of humor and diversity among its cast of characters. Humans and elves are also very well represented, and the whole mix just goes together really well. It's meant for adults, but it's an appropriate read for teens and even pre-teens, in case you're wondering. I don't want to give it a negative review, because I can understand why some people would like it. I like the main characters, especially the twins. There were a few too many 'leaps' for me, though, plot wise and I ended up putting it down about 2/3 of the way through.
This is a personal pet peeve, but if, for example, your main character is making a decision, the 'he/she just knew it was right' needs to be justified. Is intuition a special gifting? Why would they make that decision? I need to I don't want to give it a negative review, because I can understand why some people would like it. I like the main characters, especially the twins. There were a few too many 'leaps' for me, though, plot wise and I ended up putting it down about 2/3 of the way through.
This is a personal pet peeve, but if, for example, your main character is making a decision, the 'he/she just knew it was right' needs to be justified. Is intuition a special gifting? Why would they make that decision? I need to be part of the process a a reader or it feels lilke a plot device and I'm taken out of the story. Like I said, though, I can understand why some people would like it. It just hit a fe too many of my pet peeves.
Okay I think Ive settled on 3.5. It wasnt that it was in any way a bad read, it was certainly never a chore to pick up I just didnt particularly care for the characters. For me, in this type of fantasy where a band gathers for a quest, one of my favourite things is the interaction and banter between those characters. And this just fell flat in that respect. The dialogue generally was just not very sophisticated which was disappointing.
Okay I think I’ve settled on 3.5. It wasn’t that it was in any way a bad read, it was certainly never a chore to pick up I just didn’t particularly care for the characters.
For me, in this type of fantasy where a band gathers for a quest, one of my favourite things is the interaction and banter between those characters. And this just fell flat in that respect. The dialogue generally was just not very sophisticated which was disappointing. This book was by far and away the most interesting thing I've read in the last few months! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and didn't mind staying up late just so I could keep reading it.The story follows Tungdil Goldhand on his adventures through Girldegard, first to find his folk and kinsmen, and then in an epic journey to save Girdlegard from those that would destroy it.This was definitely a different take on Dwarves.
Here they aren't just the little bearded people, they are THE bearded people! This book was by far and away the most interesting thing I've read in the last few months! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and didn't mind staying up late just so I could keep reading it.The story follows Tungdil Goldhand on his adventures through Girldegard, first to find his folk and kinsmen, and then in an epic journey to save Girdlegard from those that would destroy it.This was definitely a different take on Dwarves. Here they aren't just the little bearded people, they are THE bearded people! The characters were well thought out, and easy to identify with, and even to love in some ways. It was so easy to get swept up in their battles, and want them to win!
And yet it was also easy to feel bad for the villain of the tale. Was he really a monster? Or was he perhaps to arrogant for his own good?I'd say that Dwarves is up there with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, at least for me. But you should decide for yourself.I can't wait to start the next in the series!
I read this together with my 14-year-old son. He prefers science fiction to fantasy, but is intrigued by dwarves.It's a fun read in that context. We enjoyed some of the characters' schtick, the development of a fantasy world, the protagonist's growth into a leader, the defeats of various bad guys.In a sense, it's a young adult book. The focus is on a young person, upon whose shoulders ever-escalating challenges are placed. Adult society is fouled up, and can ultimately only be helped by the I read this together with my 14-year-old son. He prefers science fiction to fantasy, but is intrigued by dwarves.It's a fun read in that context.
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We enjoyed some of the characters' schtick, the development of a fantasy world, the protagonist's growth into a leader, the defeats of various bad guys.In a sense, it's a young adult book. The focus is on a young person, upon whose shoulders ever-escalating challenges are placed. Adult society is fouled up, and can ultimately only be helped by the young. Here the world of Girdlegard is nearly destroyed by a demon-possessed sorcerer, after various leaders prove incompetent to stop him.As a fantasy reader I was interested by the focus on dwarves out of the post-Tolkien fantasy repertoire. Nothing earth-shaking or surreal, just a nice kind of travelogue or perspective shift. Fantasy isnt really my thing, but I think anyone who enjoys fantasy and epic adventures would fucking love this book. I struggled a little with keeping the characters straight, but I liked the plot itself and the setting.
For an English translation, it flowed really well. Fantasy isn’t really my thing, but I think anyone who enjoys fantasy and epic adventures would fucking love this book. I struggled a little with keeping the characters straight, but I liked the plot itself and the setting.
For an English translation, it flowed really well. An epic start to an epic book series!In my opinion the first book about the small stubborn drinkers and fighters was much different from the others. Up to now I've read parts 1-4 and I'm currently reading part 5.When I say, that the first part is different, I really mean it that way, and am not trying to say the others are not as good. Just the basic atmosphere is different to the other 4 books.In the first book you can look forward to a fun story with a lot of humour.
Markus Heitz really takes An epic start to an epic book series!In my opinion the first book about the small stubborn drinkers and fighters was much different from the others. Up to now I've read parts 1-4 and I'm currently reading part 5.When I say, that the first part is different, I really mean it that way, and am not trying to say the others are not as good. Just the basic atmosphere is different to the other 4 books.In the first book you can look forward to a fun story with a lot of humour. Markus Heitz really takes his time to introduce you to the story and the world and is always up for a good joke. At least in German (which was the language I read the book in) I had to laugh a lot and I did not once have the feeling that Markus made a bad joke or that he tried too hard to be funny (neither in any of the other books, his humour is priceless).
So if you like smiling and laughing, read it!If you don't like jokes embedded within stories, read it too! Even the story alone about badass nerd Tungdil is worth your time.I wont say much about the story, because you can read it on the back of the book (Hero is send out to do her stuff and saves the world. Prepare for some cool twists, especially in the other books).Markus didn't invent a whole new race system and his magic-rules are also very basic, but that does at no point lower the fun you have reading the story, because he plays with stereotypes and relations between the classic races (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Humans) like a boss!Stop reading this, buy this book (and the other 4 too) and get into it! You won't regret it. Hmmm not bad, I just found myself disappointed at how like Lord of the Rings it was, a group of people of all races, a wizard who turned evil but couldn't see it, and an unspeakable evil that was encroaching upon the rest of the world. Dwarve's and Elve's hate each other but in the end become friends and a child of a once ancient King of men leads an army of men united behind him.
The plot has been done before, and better by Tolkien. However, it turns out not to be a bad read once you get about Hmmm not bad, I just found myself disappointed at how like Lord of the Rings it was, a group of people of all races, a wizard who turned evil but couldn't see it, and an unspeakable evil that was encroaching upon the rest of the world. Dwarve's and Elve's hate each other but in the end become friends and a child of a once ancient King of men leads an army of men united behind him.
The plot has been done before, and better by Tolkien. However, it turns out not to be a bad read once you get about half way through it and the characters are well written, it's just a shame that it's nothing new. Will I read the second in the series? Probably, but it's not something I will rush to buy.
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